Vitor Ribeiro

— Brazilian lightweight standout Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro has reportedly signed a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce. The promotion is expected to officially announce the signing shortly. While Ribeiro may actually still be under contract with DREAM, the two organizations share a talent-exchange program. Ribeiro returned to active competition earlier this year after an 18-month hiatus, defeating Katsuhiko Nagata and falling to Shinya Aoki thus far. [Sherdog.com]

—Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson will be sidelined until at least December after breaking his leg for the second time this year during training. The injury will now keep Thomson from a potential showdown against Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce’s “Fedor vs. Rogers” event on November 7 in Chicago. According to Thomson, a return bout for him could be possible at a yet-to-be-announced event on December 19. [MMA Weekly]

We will be going live at 3:00 AM EST with live results of DREAM.10, which takes place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The card will be headlined by a lightweight bout between Shinya Aoki and Vitor Riberio. Also on the card is the welterweight tournament semifinals featuring Hayato Sakurai vs. Marius Zaromskis and Andre Galvao vs. Jason High.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments throughout the evening. Detailed live results are after the jump.

After spending over a year recovering from a variety of injuries, former top-ranked lightweight Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro is ready to return to action, and is currently planning for his next bout to take place K-1’s Dynamite!! show on New Year’s Eve.

Ribeiro has four fights left on his current deal with Japan’s Fighting and Entertainment Group, the parent company of K-1, and will likely join DREAM’s budding stable of lightweights at some point next year. Until then, Ribeiro plans on training at his new school: Modern Martial Arts in New York City.

“Everything at my school is going good. There’s been a lot of work to do over the past two weeks but I love my facility,” Ribeiro told MMA on Tap during a recent interview session. “I have a lot of friends and training partners that live nearby and in New Jersey so I try to keep my body in shape by training with them. I also have some guys at my school with good skills in boxing and wrestling that I also train with.”

Both Calvancanti and Ribeiro have been battling injuries for much of 2008. Calvancanti last took on Shinya Aoki at DREAM.2 in April, where he dropped an unanimous decision. Following the fight, the Brazilian was forced to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus and ACL in one of his knees and was expected to be sidelined until the end of this year.

Meanwhile Ribeiro has battled an injury bug that has prevented him from competing since suffering a first-round TKO loss to Calvancanti at the K-1 Hero’s middleweight tournament finals in September 2007. “Shaolin” owns career victories over some of MMA’s top lightweights, including Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Joachim Hansen.

Fight Entertainment Group has announced five more bouts for the upcoming inaugural event of the newly-formed DREAM promotion, which will take place on March 15th at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan.

Three of the fights have been announced as being part of the promotion’s lightweight grand prix: Mitsuhiro Ishida will take on Yarennoka! upstart Bu Kyung Jung, Katsuhiko Nagata goes up against Artur Oumakhanov, and Eddie Alvarez will face off against Andre Dida in a previously reported bout.

The new additions give the tournament a total of seven opening-round bouts, a number that DREAM producer Keiichi Sasahara confirmed as being final for the time being. Sasahara also announced that Caol Uno and Vitor Riberio, who were both advertised as competing in the tournament, will be unavailable due to injury.

Hayato Sakurai will look to extend his current four-fight winning streak against Hidetaka Monma in a non-tournament bout. The fight will take place at a catch-weight of 168 lbs. Also announced as being part of the card was Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa, who will take on an opponent yet to be determined.

Although Mirko Cro Cop announced yesterday via his official blog that he would be facing Yoshihiro Nakao in his first fight for DREAM, officials did not make any formal announcement other than Cro Cop’s participation at the event will still take place.

The promotion, which will also be run by officials involved with Yarennoka! and promoted by the Tokyo Broadcasting System, will now serve as the official successor for the PRIDE and K-1 Hero’s brands. K-1 announced plans for the discontinuation of Hero’s events earlier this year.

The complete card for the event thus far can be viewed through our rumors section.

YOKOHAMA - Gesias Calvancanti prevailed in two fights tonight to defend his Belt in the Hero’s Middleweight World Championship 2007 Tournament Final at the Yokohama Arena.

The twenty-four year-old mixed martial arts fighter was one of three Brazilians in the final four of the 70kg/154lb tournament. The bouts were fought under Hero’s Rules, two five-minute rounds.

The first of the semis featured chute boxer Andre Dida of Brazil and fan favorite, accomplished grappler Caol Uno of Japan.

With a edge in striking, Dida was content to stay on his feet, while Uno wanted to take this one to the mat. Dida did better in the early going, powering a couple of uppercuts and a hard knee to Uno’s face to bloody an eye and send the Japanese fighter to the mat. But Uno was capable on his back, employing bicycle kicks to keep the aggressive Brazilian at bay. Uno dove in looking for a leg takedown but Dida intercepted and the two were re-stood. Now it was Uno who tested with the jab while Dida circled, and the first ended without further damage.

- IFL heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski has announced that he has joined Dan Henderson’s Team Quest in order to continue with his training…

- FEG formally announced three bouts for the upcoming K-1 Hero’s event on September 17th. The semifinals of the 2007 154 lb tournament will roll on when Caol Uno takes on Kultar Gill and Gesias Calvancanti goes up against Vitor Ribeiro. Ikuhisa Minowa and Ralek Gracie will compete in a non-tournament bout.

“These are two of the most popular and intense fighters to ever compete in the Valley,” Printup said. “Levens has faced tougher competition, but Ento is an extremely tough match up. He’s tall, rangy, has excellent submissions and underrated stand up. Levens is an absolute animal, who has only lost to top-level fighters.”

- The IFL Finals on September 20th in Hollywood, Florida will now feature two superfights as well as the IFL Championship. Seth Petruzelli and Rolles Gracie Jr. will meet in a light heavyweight bout. Aaron Riley and Ryan Schultz will clash in the night’s other superfight.

- The weigh-ins for UFC 74 will begin at 6 PM EST and will start to be broadcast on ESPNEWS at 7:15 EST. As always, they will also be available to watch online for free on a slew of sites, including UFC.com, Yahoo! Sports, and MSN.

- Tickets for UFC 77: Hostile Territory are slated to go on sale starting on August 22nd…

Current Cage Rage Lightweight Champion Vitor Riberio will make his K-1 debut against Ryuki Ueyama. Riberio was originally supposed to make his K-1 debut last year at the organization’s lightweight tournament but was forced to pull out due to injury.

Kazuyki Miyata will take on Kultar Gill. Fans may find Gill semi-familar as he recently lost to Rodrigo Damm on BodogFight: St. Petersburg…

The two other bouts will feature Hiroyuki Takaya facing Andre Dida and UFC veteran Caol Uno returning to fight Ali Ibrahim. Obviously Uno’s participation in this event further cements the fact that the rumor he had signed with the UFC is obviously false.